The Wanderers Beginning: The Wanderers, Reborn, & Unforgiven (115 page)

             
“My parents died when I was little so my grandparents took me in.”

             
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I can only imagine how hard that must have been for you.”

             
“It’s better than lying in a ditch on drugs.” I think he was attempting a joke, but I wasn’t quite sure so I didn’t say anything. “Relax. It’s okay. It happened a long time ago,” he said, giving me a small smile. I returned it with one of my own. “Can I ask you something?” I nodded. “Why are you looking for Tristan? I mean no offense, but he’s an ass and I can’t remember the last time he was actually serious about anybody. I mean the advice he used to give me would make any girl cringe and let’s not forget –”

             
I stopped him there. “Josef. I know Tristan is your cousin and I know how he is or used to be, but he’s different now.”

             
“I’ve heard girls say that before too.”

             
“Well you can trust me when I say I am not one of those girls.”

             
“Now that I could actually believe,” he smiled. “You really think he’s still alive? I mean how can you be so sure?”

             
“I just know he is. I believe it in here,” I said, putting my hand over my heart. “Don’t you?” He shrugged. “You know you remind me a lot of him.” He stiffened and his eyes slightly narrowed. “That was a compliment.”

             
“Some might think differently.” I was about to say something when he got the strangest look on his face.

             
I pulled back. “Josef, what’s the matter?” I started to get that feeling in my stomach again. He didn’t move. He barely even flinched. “What is it? What’s wrong?” I asked again.

             
“I think we have some party crashers,” he said.

             
“What?” I turned in the direction of his eyes. Spread out along the railing were a few men wearing long, black coats, standing, and staring out into the crowd. My gut told me they were not here for the cocktails. I turned back around to ask Josef who they were when I saw more of them surrounding the other side.

             
“Something tells me these guys aren’t good news. I think we should go.”

             
I was just as confused as he was. Then it hit me. He knew. My father knew where I was and sent these men here to come get me. “They’re here for me,” I said.

             
“What?” he looked at me confused. “They’re here for you?”

             
“I don’t have time to explain. We need to go now.” He grabbed my arm and started to pull me off the dance floor. I looked back in time to see the men notice my hasty exit. I stopped and pulled my arm from Josef. “Ella, what are you doing?”  I let Josef pull me away right as one of the men pointed in my direction. Suddenly everywhere I looked there was a man in a black coat. Josef kept trying to pull me through the crowd, but I couldn’t move.  There was no way we were getting out of there. I thought quickly, closed my eyes, and focused. I pulled strength from deep down and willed my powers to use everything I had to create a shield, hoping to protect us from anyone who got in our way.

             
Well that’s what I tried to do. When I threw my hands up, the force of my shield was so powerful, all the men on the balcony flew back into the wall. Windows broke and glass shattered everywhere. The people on the dance floor fell to the ground cowering, scared from the blast.

             
And then there was chaos.

             
Crap.

             
I just stood there and stared at my hands, amazed at what just happened. I heard people calling my name but it sounded like a far off echo. “That was…unbelievable,” Josef said, tearing me from my daze. My eyes quickly searched the top floor for my friends. Billy leapt from the top of the balcony down to the floor. I blinked and Josie was before me.

             
“Ella, come on,” she said, pulling me.

             
“Wait! Where are Cameron and Dean?”

             
“Ella, I have Cameron. Get the hell out of there!”
Dean projected to me. Knowing that Dean and Cameron were safe I let Josie pull me out.

             
We had a tough time getting through the crowd with everyone running in different directions and scrambling to get to safety. The men in black coats were now making their way through the dance floor. One got a hold of Billy and I turned quickly throwing out my hand and his attacker flew across the room. “Nicely done,” Billy said as he grabbed me and started to shove me toward the exit. More men in black blocked our way and soon we would be surrounded. There was only one way we were going to make it out of there. We’re going to have to fight our way out.

             
Billy was attacked by two men. I turned around to help him and was face to face with one of them. I struck first not waiting for him to get the upper hand. My attack took him by surprise. I guess he thought someone like me would not be able to defend themselves. He quickly recovered and came at me full force. I was able to knock him out and moved to help Billy. These men were strong and trained well, but thankfully we managed to break away.

             
We made it outside without any more interference. “What the hell is going on!?!” Josie asked.

             
“My father, that’s what’s going on,” I growled.

             
“Your father?” Josef asked a little breathless.

             
“Short version…not really supposed to be here.”

             
“Come on, we need to go,” Josie said, tugging on my arm.

             
“What’s the quickest way out of here?” I asked Josef.

             
“This way,” he said as the door swung open and people began to pour out. I was knocked away from my friends. “Ella!” I turned in the direction of his voice and froze. In front of me was one of my father’s men. I tried using my powers to throw him into the crowd but they weren’t working.

             
“What the hell?”

             
He smiled and came after me. I attacked. It was hard fighting in this damn dress and I was losing. “Billy!” I shrieked.

             
Billy pushed his way through the crowd and ripped the guy away from me. “Josie now!” he yelled.

             
“What?”

             
Before I knew it she grabbed me and then we were no longer in the alley. I blinked and we came crashing down on the floor of our hotel room. I sat up slowly, my head was spinning and I was seeing dark spots. “Sorry, I never done that before with another person,” Josie admitted.

             
I went to stand on weak legs only to fall back down and then throw up in the nearest trash can. “Uh yeah, I probably should have warned you it can be a little disorienting until you get used to it.”

             
“You also need to work on sticking your landing,” I grumbled before I passed out.

Chapter Four

When I finally came to, I had a pounding headache and my ankle was throbbing. I was lying on the bed in our hotel room. I sat up slowly and looked around the room. Josie and Cameron were curled up on the other bed and Dean and Billy sat around the table discussing something intently.

             
“Hey, you’re awake,” Dean said, turning his attention to me. I swung my legs off the side of the bed and tried to stand up. I fell back as soon as I put pressure on my ankle. “Careful,” Dean said, catching me, and helping me back on the bed. “I think you might have sprained your ankle.”

             
“Great, just great – more like Josie sprained my ankle,” I thought.

             
“I’ll get you some ice,” Billy said, leaving the room.

             
I looked at Dean. “Okay, so what the hell happened tonight?”

             
The look on his face told me he was afraid to tell me. “I think dad knows where we are,” he said, sitting next to me on the bed. 

             
“Then where is he?” I asked, pissed that he would go to all that trouble just to catch us.

             
“I don’t know, but I think this was a warning.”

             
“A warning for what?”

             
“That he means business and if we don’t come home soon this could get ugly.”

             
“It already got ugly. Seriously, someone could have got hurt because of those people.”

             
“Ella, I think you did more damage than they did.”

             
I stifled an eye roll. “That was an accident.”

             
“Accident or not you definitely brought attention to us.”

             
“So now what do we do?”

             
“We lay low for a while.” I opened my mouth to protest but Dean stopped me. “Ella, dad knows how powerful you are and once he hears about this incident I’m sure he’ll be on the first flight out here.”

             
I got up slowly and hobbled my way over to my bag and started packing. “What are you doing?” Dean asked.

             
“We’re getting out of here,” I said.

             
“And where are we going to go?”

             
“To another hotel.”

             
He got up and stopped me. “Ella, that doesn’t matter. Where ever we go he will find us.”

             
“You don’t know that for sure and I’m not gonna sit around and wait to find out. You can stay here if you want but I’m not going to let him get me.” He sighed and let me go. He knew when I meant business and there was no use in arguing with me.

             
“I think I have an idea of where you can go where he won’t find you,” Josef said, making me forget he was even there. “You guys can come stay with us,” he suggested.

             
“Josef, we can’t do that.”

             
“I insist and so would my grandparents.” I looked at him doubtful. “Trust me, it’s the safest place you can be right now and he won’t find you there.”

             
I thought it over for a moment. He might actually be right. My dad wouldn’t expect us to know anyone there so he would think we would be staying at a hotel. “Okay, yes. We’ll come stay with you, but this is only temporary.”

             
“Of course,” he said with a slight smile.

             
I woke up Josie and Cameron and told them to pack their things. “What’s going on?” Josie asked groggily.

             
“I’ll explain on the way,” I told her. She didn’t ask any questions. She just grabbed her things and stuffed them into her bag. Billy came back with ice. One look at us and he knew something was up. “Get your things,” was all I said.

             
Once we were all packed up, we headed down to the car. Billy gave me a piggyback to help keep pressure off of my ankle. Then we loaded into the car and set off to Josef’s house.

             
Josef told his grandfather that we needed a place to crash for a while with no further explanation. Caleb didn’t ask any questions as to why we showed up in the middle of the night. Instead he helped us get situated and told us we were welcome to stay as long as we needed. I smiled at him graciously while Billy and Dean collected our things from the car. Caleb told us we could sleep in Josef’s room and the boys could sleep on the couches. I didn’t argue. I was too tired at the moment and my ankle was killing me.

             
Josef showed us to his room and handed us some clean sheets and blankets. Then he returned with an ice pack for my ankle. “Thank you,” I told him. “For everything.”

             
“It’s no problem,” he smiled bashfully.

             
“Okay, well, goodnight then,” I said, closing the door.

             
I needed sleep and to get out of this horrible dress. The moment I unzipped it I could finely breathe. I slipped into some pajamas and then crawled into the tiny bed with Josie and Cameron who were already asleep. The second I closed my eyes there was a knock on the door. “Ella?” Billy whispered.

             
“Come in,” I called.

             
He let himself in and right away handed me a bottle. “This will help your ankle.” I mumbled thanks and said goodnight.

              I lasted only hour. I couldn’t take all of Josie’s hitting and kicking. Normally she wasn’t this bad, but I guess being in a strange place made her restless. I sat up and looked around the room. There was a small bench seat slash sofa over by the window. I grabbed a pillow, a blanket, and made myself comfortable.

The sun was gleaming brightly through the shades very early in the morning. Way too early for me, so I pulled the covers up over my head to block out the light. I felt someone kick the sofa. I grumbled to myself and they kicked it again. “What?” I said annoyed. No one answered. Instead they just kicked the bench so hard I fell off and got tangled up in the blanket.

  
              I pulled the blanket off and looked up at the culprit. It was Deirdre. She was standing above me with her arms crossed. “You come with me,” she said.

  
              “Where are we going?” I asked, trying to keep my anger in check.

  
              “Since you admire my garden so much I thought you should know what it’s like to keep up with it.”

  
              “I don’t really like it that much,” I mumbled.

  
              She just smiled at me wickedly. “Hurry up, it’s late,” she said, walking out. I looked over at the clock. It was six a.m. – seriously, this woman was working on my last nerve. If they weren’t so gracious to have let five complete strangers stay at their house no questions asked, I would have laughed in her face and went back to sleep, but she was Tristan’s grandmother.

  
              I reluctantly got up and went outside. There were about ten twenty pound bags of soil sitting by the back porch. Along with shovels, gardening tools, and what not.

   
              She pointed to the bags and told me to carry them down to the end of the garden lining them up along the way. I hadn’t realized how large the garden was at first. From where I was standing it looked like a half a mile long. I stood there not sure until Deirdre started nudging me in the direction of the soil. “Okay, okay,” I said.

  
              I spent the next hour trudging bags of soil up and down the garden. Then she handed me some tools and told me to start digging. I took off the first layer of my shirt leaving me in my tank top. It was hot and I was sweating like a pig. I pulled my hair back and wiped the sweat from my brow. Half way through digging and pulling weeds, Deirdre got up and headed back inside. “Are we done?” I asked. She ignored me and kept walking.

  
              Ten minutes later she came back out with a fresh glass of lemonade. I was about to thank her until she threw a bottle of water at me and told me to keep working. Then she lectured me on the horrible job I was doing and told me I was slacking. Then proceeded to go sit down in the shade and sip her lemonade. It took everything I had not to throw something at her. I kept reminding myself that she was an elderly woman and it wouldn’t be a fair fight.  I just glared at her from over my shoulder and she just sat there smiling.

  
              I never thought I would get finished. Thankfully Josef came out and offered to help me. We spent the next two hours working in the garden while Deirdre watched.  Turns out, Josef is quite the talker. He had a lot of similarities to Tristan. Same dark hair, same physique, the only difference in their appearance was that Josef’s eyes were light blue unlike Tristan’s which were dark blue, and two totally different personalities. Josef was very sweet and very mature for his age and you could tell he was brought up right and knew how to respect others as oppose to Tristan’s spoiled and carefree nature.

     
              “Breakfast is done!” Josie called.

  
              “Oh thank god. I’m starving,” I complained.

  
              “Well come on then,” Josef said, offering me a hand. I wiped all the dirt off on my jeans and headed into the kitchen. I took a seat at the table where the girls had made a wonderful breakfast.

  
              “You, up,” Deirdre pointed at me. “You will not sit at my table covered in dirt. You clean up before you eat.” She pulled my chair from the table with me still in it and waited until I got up. I stared at her and she stood there with her arms crossed. I sighed and got up to go clean up, but not before stealing some bacon off the table when she wasn’t looking.

  
              I did feel better after I showered. It was good to get all that dirt and sweat off. By the time I was done, everyone had finished eating and was already cleaning up. “Don’t worry I saved you a plate,” Josef said.

  
              Just as I sat down to eat Deirdre turned to look at me. “What? I showered?”

  
              “You took too long breakfast is over,” she said, taking my plate. I was able to shovel some eggs in my mouth and swipe a piece of toast before she took it. “Now you clean.”

  
              “I didn’t even get to eat?”

  
              “Not my fault you dilly dawdled.”

  
              “Thank you Deirdre. That was a wonderful breakfast,” Dean said, rubbing his stomach, indicating he was full.

  
              “You’re welcome Dean. You go on into the living room. Ella has a lot of cleaning up to do.”

  
              I scowled at both of them. Why was she being so sweet to Dean and treating me like her maid?
“What can I say? It must be my charming personality,”
Dean said in my head. I looked at him surprised.
“Ella, you’re my sister, I know you. I don’t have to read your mind to know what you’re thinking.”

  
              I wished sometimes he could read my mind so he’d know how much of an ass he could be and how I wanted to punch him in the face. He just smiled as if he knew and walked away. 

  
              Josef was nice enough to help me with the dishes. If it wasn’t for him I probably would have knocked his grandmother out by now.
I know, why put up with it?
Because this was Tristan’s grandmother and he cared for her deeply and they were nice enough to let us stay the night.   “So, how long do plan on staying here?” Josef asked.

  
              “In Ireland?”

  
              “Ireland, the house,” he threw in casually.

  
              “I don’t think my body could take another day like this,” I joked. “I think once we know my father is off our trail we’ll head back to a hotel.” There was a slight disappointed look on his face. “As far as how long I’ll be in Ireland? I’m not sure, a week, two, who knows?” He perked up knowing I’d be around for a little while at least. 

  
              When we finished the dishes we headed into the living room to relax. I heard a familiar voice and I froze. I was half tempted to run, but I knew I’d have to face him sooner or later. “What are you doing here?” I asked stunned.

             
“I should ask you the same thing,” my father said, scrutinizing me with his eyes.

             
“How did you even find me?” I narrowed my eyes at Dean thinking he wasn’t on my side after all.